


Flufflestiltskin the Great and Terrible

by moodyme



Series: The Magic of the Shining Skies [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam speaks Russian thanks to NASA training!, Astronaut!Adam, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, They get a cat!, like I did not edit this at all except to change the words Russian Blue to Siberian lol, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 14:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20529884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moodyme/pseuds/moodyme
Summary: Adam and Ronan get a cat. Her name is Flufflestiltskin.





	Flufflestiltskin the Great and Terrible

**Author's Note:**

> Whew boy, I just couldn't stay away from this au y'all and whipped this out today while on my lunch break at work. Sorry.  
Flufflestiltskin is also a play on Rumpelstiltskin, which has no deep meaning, I just thought it was cute.

Ronan is sitting at the patio table, mindlessly watching one of Adam's NASA buddies flipping burgers on the grill. Around him, two dozen or so people mill about, busy, talking, a few playing cornhole, some kids chasing each other around their parents legs. Lindsey, the burger flippers wife, sets a heaping bowl of potato salad down beside him, before sighing and slouching into the nearest seat at the table.

"Ronan," she says, her voice tired, watching the way her son is darting behind the tool shed, appearing moments later on the other side, "You were raised on a farm, right? Lots of animals?"

"Sure," he says, remembering their conversation at the last Christmas party, where they discussed both being raised on farms. His childhood on a hobby farm in Virginia, hers on a real farm in Kansas. 

"How would you feel about volunteering at the shelter? We're short staffed, and could use an extra set of hands this weekend, especially from someone like you, who is less likely to get skittish around the animals." Lindsey says, finally looking away from her son and towards Ronan.

He considers the question, wondering if he had promised to do anything else this weekend, if he had any plans he may have forgotten. 

"Sure," Ronan shrugs, "The shelter is in Pasadena, right?"

"Yes, oh Ronan, thank you, I- Vince, stop bothering Hazel!- I really do appreciate it," Lindsey says, going on about what hours she would like him to be there. He actually listens to her speak, a little excited about the prospect of being around some animals again, and not just the few dogs that some of their friends had.

Maybe this would even be a good opportunity to finally convince Adam about getting a cat or dog. He had been trying, unsuccessfully, since even before he had gone to the giant ball of cheese in the sky.

The shelter, when he arrives bright and early the next morning, stinks. And is loud. And the chihuahua that watches him from where he stands, motionless, in the corner of the room, is definitely both evil and plotting his demise. But there is a cute little puppy husky that is great to cuddle with, and is gone to his adoptive home by the afternoon. There's also a cat named Xenon that seems to hate everyone, especially the shelter workers, with a burning passion. However, when a little girl in pigtails comes in holding her mothers hand, suddenly Xenon is no longer a fearsome eldritch demon, but a purring, half-blind, 10 year old kitten. Its ridiculous and cute and Ronan has to take a deep breath to stop himself from cooing like an idiot at the sight.

He goes back the next day, after Sunday Mass, and is greeted by Shawn, a high school aged volunteer, with news that they had just gotten in a new cat. Ronan goes into the back room, looks into her sparkling eyes, and calls Adam.

"I'm adopting a cat," Ronan tells him, already striding towards Lindsey's office to tell her.

"What?" Adam says, voice muddled with sleep. Ronan thinks he must have gone back to bed after Ronan left to Mass. He feels a bit guilty for waking him up.

"I'm adopting a cat," He repeats, a little more clearly this time. He pauses outside Lindsey's office, shifts his weight from one foot to the other.

"Why?" Adam asks, still in the monosyllabic part of his morning on a day off.

"Her name is Flufflestiltskin and shes a Siberian and her eyes told me to," Ronan says, perhaps too fast. "I know we talked about maybe getting a pet soon and maybe this is too soon but I already love her."

"M'kay," Adam hums, and Ronan can hear him yawn on the other side of the line. Its too easy and Ronan stops himself before he can get suspicious.

"Really? Its okay if we get her?" Ronan says, fidgeting with the elastic loop on the front of his scrub shirt that he thinks is maybe there to hold pens.

"Mm, yeah-" Adam says, and is interrupted by another yawn. "-yeah, I wanna meet her."

Ronan asks him twice more if he is really really sure hes okay with the sudden cat acquisition, and twice Adam assures him that he is.

After they hang up, he taps on Lindsey's slightly ajar office door, and ignores the fond look she is giving him from behind her desk as he asks about the shelters adoption procedure.

An hour before he is scheduled to leave the shelter, Adam walks through the door, a cat crate in hand, and Ronan wants to kiss him. The lack of a crate had been the only barrier keeping Ronan from taking Flufflestiltskin home today, and Adam thinking to bring one makes his stomach swoop. 

Ronan shuffles Adam into the back room and introduces him to Flufflestiltskin, watches as the little ball of puff sticks her tiny tongue out at Adam, sniffs his proffered hand, and begins swaying her fluffy tail.

"Well, aren't you just the prettiest little lady," Adam coos, his Southern accent laid on think like honey and music to Ronan's ears. 

Flufflestiltskin mews at him, nuzzling her head against Adam's hand. She begins full on purring as Adam shifts his hand and begins scratching her behind her right ear, her eyes going half-closed.

Ronan wishes he had thought to record the moment.

"Ahhh, you're so cute," Adam coos, pauses to spare a glance at Ronan, and begins speaking again, saying what sounds like harsh profanities at the little puff ball. Also, like he as maybe just called her a salad, which is weird.

For some strange reason, the harsh sounding words bring a light to Flufflestiltskin's eyes that Ronan is fairly certain he isn't imagining. She purrs more deeply, and fluidly leaps into Adam's arms.

Ronan really wishes he had thought to record the moment.

When they get home, Ronan is surprised by the cat toys and scratching post and cat food that litter the living room and kitchen.

"I ran to Wal-Mart not long after you called," Adam explains, laying on the floor with Flufflestiltskin, playing with a feather on a string, "I put her bed in the office, since I don't think she should sleep in our room."

Ronan lays down beside him, feels warmth spread all through his being when Flufflestiltskin pauses her playing and pads over to him, laying heavily on his chest. He uses one hand to pet her fluffy hair, and the other to reach for Adam, taking his hand and running his thumb over his knuckles.

After several moments, Adam begins murmuring softly in Russian again, and Ronan isn't sure if he's talking to him or the cat.

Henry Cheng is sitting on the couch, demanding for the third time in as many days to be the one to plan his and Adam's wedding, repeating the same account of how unfair Adam was being by asking Helen to plan it instead. After all, Henry insisted, she was already going to be one of his Groomswomen, wasn't that enough wedding responsibility?

"I don't really give a fuck," Ronan tells him, purposefully ignoring the blatantly flirtatious looks Henry keeps shooting Noah, who is across the room and talking animatedly with Blue and Gansey.

"I admit you have a point," Adam sighs, "But Helen has more experience, she's planned weddings for at least six other of our friends."

"Yes, fine," Henry says, waving a hand in the air, "But she's in _Germany_ for the next six months, and I'm _here_. I bet she doesn't even know all the hottest Houston wedding venues or-"

"We're getting married in Virginia," Ronan interrupts him, and enjoys the way Henry stumbles over that bit of news. He watches, satisfied, as Henry scrambles to string together another set of reasons way he would be the superior wedding planner.

"A destination wedding, yes, how quaint!" Henry says, "And closer to your families, of course, but what about, uh... picking color schemes. I'm great with colors!"

"White and black," Adam sighs.

"Not, technically, colors," Henry says, and Ronan can see he is about to laud his wedding planning abilities further, but Noah finally acknowledges him from across the room, and it distracts him enough to make him lose his train of thought. Thank God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and all the saints.

Flufflestiltskin, who had moments before been quite content to lazily lounging between Blue and Gansey, suddenly sprang from her perch and padded over to Adam, leaping into his lap with a loud and low-pitched 'Meow'.

Adam, in the way he so often did, began to coo at her in a mix of English and Russian, the English he understood just fine, but why he kept saying something like 'Colt neck' he didn't know. After awhile, Flufflestiltskin began purring softly, and it wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep, a queen with Adam's lap as her throne.

Adam continued to murmur in Russian, though he seemed to be saying them to Ronan now. Ronan watched as Adam smirked and cast glances at him and it frustrated him, because Ronan was fairly certain Adam had just called him a 'Lube me' and also that he had said 'ya take vitamin lube' and something about a 'tie-dye lash'. None of those things made sense, and just sounded silly.

Henry, who Ronan had admittedly happily forgotten about, making a choking noise, and Ronan looked at him to find him red in the face and covering his mouth with his hand. 

"Adam," Henry coughs around his hand, "You smooth sonuvabitch, oh my god."

He then stood, and walked away to the kitchen, where Ronan heard him break out into what sounded suspiciously like uncontrollable laughter. He looked back at Adam, to find he was smirking, but his eyes were shining. The smirk, the longer Ronan watched him, morphed into a grin.

"What?" Ronan asks, confused.

"Nothing," Adam answers, but his grin widens again and there is pink coloring on the tops of his cheeks.

Ronan thinks about what Henry had said, and demands "What did you say, Adam, what did you say?"

"Nothing," Adam insists, breaking out into a quiet laugh.

Ronan thinks about smacking him with a pillow. Or demand Adam repeat the words later so he can record them and have Nadia or Lisa or Dmitri translate it later. And if that fails, he's pretty sure he can threaten Henry into telling him.

**Author's Note:**

> Dont hate me, but I am very much not a cat person. Flufflestiltskin was originally going to be a Russian Blue but I changed my mind at the last minute but I still wanted Adam to speak in Russian to the cat for personal reasons, and I just think Siberian cats are pretty, and wanted them to have a cat. So. Siberian. Idk. If I got some cat stuff wrong, my liking dogs (way way) better is probably the reason. Sorry.
> 
> The Russian Adam is saying is, basically:  
котёнок [ka-tyó-nak] - (Kitty)  
Which doesn't really sound like 'Colt neck', but w/e.  
люби́мый [lyu-bée-myî] - (Beloved one)  
which, to an English ear, does sound a little like 'Lube me'  
Ты де́лаешь меня́ таки́м счастли́вым. [ty dyé-la-eesh mee-nyá scheest-lée-vym] - (You make me so happy)  
=Tie-dye lash  
Я так в тебя́ влюблена́. [ya tak v tee-býa vlyub-lee-ná] - (I'm so in love with you)  
= ya take vitamin lube
> 
> If any of this Russian is wrong, I'm sorry, I got them online (I also studied Russian for awhile! But I have forgotten nearly everything except for a few basic words like no and please and dog and a dozen or so more lol).


End file.
